


A Cure for Lonely Rivers

by QuoteMyFoot



Series: Naruto AU Week [2]
Category: Celtic Mythology, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mythology, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Kelpie!Kakashi, Kelpies, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29320317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuoteMyFoot/pseuds/QuoteMyFoot
Summary: A kelpie can be a dangerous thing, and to tame it is a year's worth of hard work.Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke won't let a pesky little thing like that stop them--and anyway, Naruto named the kelpie 'Kakashi', so he's already attached.Day 2: Mythology & Folktales
Relationships: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Sasuke, Hatake Kakashi & Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Naruto AU Week [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2151003
Comments: 6
Kudos: 73
Collections: Naruto AU Week 2021





	A Cure for Lonely Rivers

**Author's Note:**

> This is very very loosely based on a Scottish folk tale about a kelpie from Barra. The rest of the stuff I made up. Enjoy!

The pool is deep in the woods, a dark mirror which sees no sunlight, shaded by the trees above. Once it burbled merrily through the trees, the winding track of a river’s tributary child. But then the river was dammed up and the water raced along no more.

Under the trees, where no light falls, no reeds or grass grow by the lonely black pool. Sucking, desperate mud surrounds, undisturbed save for the two horseshoe prints that lie in it, sunk deep, _deep;_ they are an incautious traveller’s last memory.

The lonely pond is still and stagnant, but it remembers the long and flowing path it used to run, and it aches for the wind.

*

The child that comes to the black pool one day is bright and beautiful, like the sunshine that once cast beams through rippling waters, like the light the trees now jealously guard from the pool.

Seeing the mud, the two single prints by the water, the child stops where he can still feel the grass under his feet. “Hello,” he says, to the man on the opposite side of the pond.

The man is dressed in black, his face obscured by water reeds. One single eye blinks back, as placid as the lonely water between them. His stare is hard. The pool ripples, though there is no breeze. “Hello,” he replies. “Why don’t you come closer?”

The sunshine child wiggles his toes, feeling the blades of grass tickle them. “Nah,” he says, “I think this side is nicer. You should come to me.”

When he stands, the man in black is lithe and graceful like a dancer. Somehow it is hard to look at him head on, and the child cannot quite see all of his face at once, though he peers. The man walks through the lonely pool, the placid waters barely shifting with each movement. He leaves no marks in the mud. The air stinks of stagnant water. Reeds linger across the man’s shoulders.

“Oh, your hair is white,” the sunshine child says. He tilts his head. “I didn’t realise you were so old.”

“I am not,” the man insists. He takes another step towards the boy, but he pauses when his feet touch the grass.

“Not _you,_ ” says the boy. “I mean your river.”

Sharply, the man looks up. A silver necklace jingles like bells around his neck, coming loose from the reeds and the uncertain shadows that haunt his features.

The man’s solitary eye narrows.

A girl drops out of the trees and grabs the necklace. She pulls and there is a sound like gushing water as the man doubles over; he is a man no more, as his form ripples and shifts and twists into a new shape.

The black horse stands where the man once was, hoofs sinking into the ground where no footprints were before.

The girl looks at the horse. It has white, knotted, unkempt mane; the tail is almost as ragged, cropped unevenly; its eyes are red and wide. It paws the ground and shakes its head, snorting. Specks of blood land on the girl’s face and she wipes them carefully away.

“See, Sasuke,” says the sunshine boy, putting his hands on his hips and beaming, “me and Sakura didn’t need you after all!”

Out of another tree hops a boy with dark hair—the Sasuke. He throws a saddle over the black horse and his eyes roll in his head. “Oh, really? So when did you learn to ride, Naruto?”

The smile fades as the sunny boy opens his mouth and closes it again.

The girl, with pink hair the colour of those spring flowers she is named for, giggles and shakes her head. “Let me help you put the bridle on, Sasuke.”

“Give the necklace to Naruto then.”

Naruto holds the necklace in front of him, examining the pendant at the end, which has no solid shape. “We got here just in time, huh? He was about to start preying, I think.”

“How long do you think he’d been sitting there?”

“Hard to say. We’ll need to find the source…”

The bridle freezes the black horse like ice for a moment. He stomps his feet, trying to grab the silver necklace with his teeth, but Naruto jerks it out of reach. He is trapped.

Leaping on the horse’s back, the dark haired boy digs his heels into the horse’s side. It is not too deep, but the horse moves uncertainly, following only the necklace still dangling from the fingers of the sunshine boy.

They plod through the trees as a slow, steady pace. The further they move from the deepest part of the forest, the more sunlight filters through the trees and the more life reveals itself before their path. The horse’s ears flicker constantly, trying to catch every bit of birdsong and every rustle of the leaves on the breeze.

Emerging from the forest into a field, the horse was startled by a sound he’d never heard before—the raucous caws of crows. The sound of wingbeats fills the air as they take to the sky. They wheel in the sky above, and the horse nearly tips Sasuke out of the saddle as it rises on its haunches to look at them further.

The crows realise they are being watched and scatter, leaving no trace on the breeze.

The horse’s ears lie flat against his skull until Naruto cackled, a gleeful noise which drowned out any other. “Ha! He’s a scarecrow.” He pats the neck of the horse with the hand that isn’t holding the necklace. “Kakashi!”

“We are not referring to the kelpie as Kakashi,” Sasuke says flatly.

Sakura sighs. Naruto just smiles.

The kelpie is known as Kakashi from then on.

*

**Spring**

The horse is prodigiously, preternaturally strong, and there is much to be done to sow the fields. There has been a war and a plague, because these things often came together, and the people are at risk of starving.

With the strength of ten normal horses in his thin black frame, the horse can plough a field in time that is inconsequential to him. Perhaps that is why they all, man and beast alike, flee from him. All except the three children, who irritate the horse with their clambering and shouting.

“Hey, hey, Sasuke, I bet he could carry all three of us at once! It would be so much fun!”

“We’re not here to play, idiot, we’re here to do the work—you know these people might starve—”

“Yeah, yeah, but Kakashi is so strong, I bet he could carry us _and_ do the ploughing!”

The sunshine-like child always smiles at the horse as he says this. The horse only fails to bite him because the children hold the necklace.

Still, the horse does not complain about the ploughing. The mud under his hooves is pleasantly cool against the sweat arising from the work, and the child called Sakura shows him the grains that are being planted, puts a handful under his nose. The horse is not familiar with earthen thing and breathes deeply of the scents, learning the names of the strange seedlings. Barley. Wheat. Rye.

Sakura says, “You can watch them grow and taste the bread made from them. I used to help bake it at my home village. When it comes out of the oven, the smell is like…”

She tells the horse many small, insignificant stories like this in every field the horse was put to work in.

“It’s nice to watch things grows when you helped them,” Sakura says. There is a small smile on her downturned face, nostalgic and mournful at once. “I think you’ll like it. Rivers carry life in them, I know, but it’s not the same.”

Once, the horse cuts himself on a thorn – not deep, just a sting, but it bleeds. The horse is not accustomed to this sensation, but it plods on—

Until Naruto notices and runs, yelling for Sakura. Sasuke rolls his eyes, but he does not make the horse walk any more. Instead, he dismounts and prods, gently, at the injury. Sakura comes with Naruto trailing behind her, chattering worriedly.

“Naruto is making a mountain out of a mole hill, like usual,” Sasuke says. “The thorn didn’t even get stuck in him. I’m sure Kakashi is fine.”

“But what if he’s not?” Naruto bites his lip. “Sakura was talking about infections and the thorn might’ve had icky bird stuff on it—”

Sasuke sighs. “You can say bird poo, Naruto.”

He reels back. “Maybe _I_ can,” he says, “but you can’t! That doesn’t sound right coming out of your noble accent!”

The horse’s ears lie flat against his skull. He knows this will lead to another loud argument. There is _precedent._

“Oh, you two, stop it,” Sakura says. She absently pats Kakashi’s neck, her hair directly by his mouth. The horse wonders if it tastes like the cherry blossom petals that used to float on the river. “Maybe Naruto is overreacting, but there’s no harm in being careful.” Naruto continues to pout. She pats the top of his head, and he smiles. “Thank you for listening to at least one of my lectures.”

“Aren’t I a great learner, Sakura?!”

“Don’t push it.” She smirks. “Don’t worry, Kakashi, I’m going to clean your cut. It will sting a little, but it will make sure you don’t get an infection.”

She opens the pouch that she perpetually carries on her hip. It has always smelled sharp to the horse—more so than the sting of the thorn he had barely felt. He feels that she should protest, but Sakura’s voice fills his ears again, like all the stories she told him. This time it it not a tale, but knowledge.

The horse finds himself soothed by the familiar voice, the rising and falling cadences. Sakura tells him about poisoning of the blood, prevention, what little can be tried as a cure…

“I used to be apprenticed to the healer in my village,” she says. “But I know horses quite well as well, even if you aren’t a normal one.”

The horse is silent. Sakura does not seem to mind. His cut heals well, and Sakura takes care of every injury his hooves and his coat, all whilst she continued telling stories and sharing knowledge in her soft, clear voice.

He never answered, but she did not seem to expect him to.

The horse finds, however, that Sakura is the most knowledgeable about plants, so whenever he discovers a new flower he hasn’t seen before, he picks it delicately and brings it to her. Sakura can always share the name and whether it is safe to eat or not, but sometimes she has a particular story or medical use to share as well.

He appreciates that. Knowledge is… useful. The stories are less useful, but the horse finds himself listening carefully anyway.

“Kakashi, have you heard…”

“Kakashi, did I already tell you…”

“Kakashi, have you tried…”

“Kakashi, tomorrow the eastern village is having a celebration to commemorate the end of the planting season,” Sakura says one night. She leans against his side for warmth despite the flickering fire being tended to by the boys.

“Oh, yeah!” Naruto grins. “It’s going to be great!”

“Watch what you’re doing with the fire!” Sasuke says, pushing a fallen log back into their pit.

“If you promise to be on your best behaviour, you can come too, Kakashi.” Sakura absently pats his neck.

Sasuke turns to her and frowns. “Are you sure he…”

“What a good idea!” Naruto says loudly, drowning out the last part of Sasuke’s objection. “There’s going to be fancy bread and dancing and flowers! You like flowers, right, Kakashi?”

The horse’s ears twitch. He had not realised the boy had been watching. The flowers were meant to be given to Sakura.

Sasuke sighs. “If you’re sure… the villagers won’t be happy about it, though.”

“Well, they can’t have him do so much work for the harvest and not give him anything for it, it’s not fair!”

Sakura tilts her head until the black horse can see her smile. “Don’t worry. If anyone gets mad about it, they’ll have to answer to me.”

“So will Kakashi, if he does anything he shouldn’t,” Sasuke adds.

Her grin turns vicious and she doesn’t correct him.

Kakashi does not like the humans, but after all of Sakura’s stories, he does want to try the bread—so when Sakura asks, “Do you promise?”, he gives an affirmative snort.

And after hearing so many of Sakura’s stories, he doesn’t want them to stop, so he means it.

*

**Summer**

When Sakura told the black horse that spring was a time of new life, he didn’t realise this would mean summer was going to be an _explosion_ of it.

“Kakashi, look at this!” Naruto shouts.

The horse turns, because he has already learnt that Naruto will not be quiet until he is humoured, and blinks when the boy hold an unremarkable green stem out towards him. The horse huffs, a question.

Naruto grins. “Sticky grass!”

And he throws it against Kakashi’s side and runs away cackling.

To the horse’s consternation, the grass sticks to his side and it takes him several minutes of delicately picking at it with his sharp teeth to remove it. When he finally holds it, triumphant, between his teeth, he turn to find Sakura and Sasuke positively _covered_ in the sticky grass.

Sasuke growls as Sakura helpefully pulls one of the grasses out of his hair. “Kakashi, let’s get him.”

“You’ll have to catch me first!” Naruto’s voice echoes from the tree bordering the meadow. It’s impossible to locate the source of the sound.

But Kakashi can still smell him. He trots up to a large tree with lots of different branches and looks up into the thick boughs.

Naruto’s head pokes out of a leafy limb. “Kakashi, you’re no fun.”

With the planting completed and the harvest a whole season away, the farmers and villages have little need of them. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke still go to help sometimes, but the three children find themselves with a lot of free time, and, therefore, so does the black horse. Thus a lot of time is whiled away liked this. Naruto seems have been designed for this purpose; he never runs out of games or energy, and the hose of new activities and rules leave the black horse feeling dizzy.

It is necessary, though. The ploughing had kept the horse occupied, and if he had been annoyed by the work, he is now discovering that boredom is far worse.

The sticky grass is a particularly diverting revelation. It is very common in the hedgerows and meadows, and Kakashi makes his own game of seeing how many stems he can put on Naruto’s back before the boy notices. Normally, he is given away by Sasuke and Sakura failing to suppress laughter. The horse is sure he could do better if they were more reserved.

It is just to stave off boredom. He is not playing ‘with’ them. But he is confused why Naruto is never angry like the other two children were cross at being covered in the sticky grass. Instead, Naruto keeps count of Kakashi’s highest scores, and laughs delightedly and every plant he picks off his shirt.

“Oh, Kakashi, look – dandelions! Watch me blow the seeds away!”

“These are the floaty seeds, Kakashi! Isn’t it cool how they spin when they fall from the tree?” (“They’re sycamore seeds, Naruto,” Sakura says, as an aside, obviously expecting to have no impact on him whatsoever.)

“Hey Kakashi, let’s play a game!”

Games, games, games. For the sunshine boy, everything seems to be a game of which he never tires. The horse finds it… trying.

“Don’t mind Naruto too much,” Sasuke says one night. “He was… very lonely, growing up. Now he always wants to spend time with the people he cares about.” He smiles, sly and small. “If he’s being too much, just knock him on the head a bit, he’ll get the message.”

Kakashi feels that he understands Naruto better for this comment, but he is confused why the boy then spends so much time with _him._ Puzzled, he does not turn down Naruto’s playtimes, hoping to discover what on earth the boy gets out of it. It cannot be Kakashi’s company, for Naruto has lots of friends—at least a dozen at every village they visit, children both older and younger than him, and the adults still greet him with a smile.

Naruto shows none of the fear of the horse that the other villagers do, keeping Kakashi on the periphery of his games with the other children. One day, he decides to coax Sakura into being a princess for them all to rescue from the evil dragon Kakashi.

Kakashi gives Naruto a dead stare. The sunshine boy whispers, “I know, but Sasuke never puts any effort into his roars, you know? He thinks he’s too cool, the bastard.”

“I heard that!” Sasuke calls.

Naruto pokes his tongue out at the other boy before turning back to Kakashi. “C’mon, please? It’s not as fun is there’s no one to pretend to be the baddie.”

The horse could not be sure why these words move him, but he reluctantly consents.

Naruto’s friends are wary of approaching the black horse, even in ‘play’, until Naruto gets rebuffed three time with no harm done to him except some new grass stains on his trousers. After that, all of them are less afraid.

The laughter of children fills the air. It is a different kind of music to the songbirds that Kakashi has heard before, discordant and chaotic. Still, all music is pleasant to listen to.

The game is brought to a sudden half when one small boy puts his foot in a rabbit’s burrow and twists his ankle. Princess Sakura declare the sniffling child the bravest warrior of all, but says he cannot walk home on his injury.

“Oh, well, that’s easy!” Naruto says. “Kakashi can carry him home. Right, Kakashi?”

The horse snorts and paws the ground, but the boy’s pleading, sky-blue eyes make it impossible to refuse. More cautious, it takes several minutes for Naruto and Sakura to convince the injured child to agree as well, but in the end, it is no bother to the horse. The boy is light and mostly silent. There is no musical laughter from the children. Peace and quiet. This is no bother. None at all.

Whispers run through the injured boy’s village like ants when the people see the black horse. Naruto’s voice fills the air with tales from their game, and whispers are drowned out with music. They eventually reach the small boy’s door and his mother. She looks at Kakashi nervously, but only says, “Thank you for bringing him home.”

Sakura helps the boy down from the horse. The boy whispers, “Thank you,” to Kakashi as well.

The other children scatter throughout the village, telling stories to their parents. There are more whispers as the Kakashi leaves with Naruto and Sakura, but they do not sound like scurrying ants this time.

Naruto pats his neck and grins. “You did good,” he says.

The next time Naruto’s friend from the village come to play, they argue at the end about who gets to ride Kakashi home. Kakashi is not bothered, busy enjoying the music of laughter.

*

**Autumn**

Summer and the free time it brought passes. As the days grow shorter, the work grows more intense: harvest season is upon them. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke are all called on to help with the harvest, and even Kakashi is put to use, carrying heavy bales of hay or bushels of wheat, pulling carts that would normally require at least two horse, carrying men to and fro…

For the horse, this kind of work is easy, but the children struggle with the back-breaking work as the autumn remains warm and relatively dry. Still, Naruto and Sakura make an effort to talk to Kakashi. Naruto invents songs to encourage the harvest workers, whilst Sakura makes sure every injury is taken seriously and fully fixed before anyone throws themselves back into work.

Sasuke is quiet.

It takes some time for Kakashi to feel uneasy about this, as Sasuke is usually quiet. But the horse is used to Sasuke making small comments and begins to miss their presence, feeling strangely ill at ease.

Sasuke makes himself busy. Whenever Kakashi turns his head to find him, he is doing something different. Once, cutting down the wheat; next, directing the men where they are most needed; then, driving the carts to take the wheat to the miller… Even when darkness starts to fall, Sasuke keeps working until he is squinting and losing his battle against the failing light.

Maybe Naruto and Sakura can’t see him in the dark so well—Sasuke’s hair and deep blue shirt resemble the inky night sky above, so sometimes he looks like a vague shadow even to Kakashi’s eyes. When he sees Sasuke light a lantern and go inside a small outbuilding to scratch away at some paper even as everyone else prepares for bed, eyes sunken and dark, Kakashi trots over to where Sakura is sleeping and nudges her.

“Hm?” Sakura blinks in bleary-eyed surprise. “Kakashi?”

He tugs on her sleeve until she follows him to where Sasuke sits. The boy starts when he sees her watching him, cringing like he expects to be lectured. It is certainly what Kakashi expects.

Sakura’s frown fades and she sighs. “Just… don’t stay up too late, Sasuke.” Kakashi snorts, confused, but she merely pats his neck and whispers in his ear, “Some things can’t be fixed. You just have to live with them.”

He snorts again, because he is sure Sakura has never before met a problem she couldn’t fix. She smiles sadly and wanders away, back to bed.

Kakashi is not so tired. As Sasuke turns back to his work, Kakashi huffs and sticks his head through the window.

“What?” Sasuke asks.

Blinking, Kakashi flicks an eye and says nothing.

The boy shakes his head and returns to his work. The quill scratches against the paper with sharp, precise strokes. Kakashi’s breath makes the fire in the lantern flicker. Sasuke twitches. He looks up to glare. “ _What?_ I need to get this done. I’m the only one who can—“

Kakashi snorts.

“Stop that!” Sasuke says. “Do you know how much the miller takes to make the flour? He cheats the whole county and gets away with it! I’m sure of it. I just have to be able to prove it. So you can just… go away.”

This is more than Kakashi has ever heard the boy say in one go before, so now he’s certain that there is something quite wrong. He does not move, and for a long moment, neither does Sasuke… Then he turns his head back to the paper, scowl smoothing out as he concentrates. _Scratch scratch scratch_ goes the quill.

Kakashi waits until the night is at is coldest and darkest, and Sasuke’s head and eyelids keep drooping low, before he heaves a long, deep breath and the flame in the light goes out.

Sasuke starts upright. “Kakashi!”

The boy can no longer see him in the dark, of course, but he whinnies so that Sasuke can follow the sound.

When Sasuke’s freezing fingers close around Kakahsi’s neck, a tension in him relaxes even as he snaps, “Didn’t I _tell_ you to leave me alone?”

Kakashi stomps his hooves and gently nudges Sasuke with his head.

“It’s a human thing, you wouldn’t understand,” Sasuke protests. “The miller, the local lord, just… if I… we’re going to leave after this is all done. If I can leave these people with the tools to defend themselves…”

His ears flatten against his skull. This is the first time he’s heard anything about leaving.

It isn’t clear is Sasuke notices. He yawns and rests his head against the side of Kakashi’s neck. “I couldn’t get the lantern lit again in the dark anyway, though… I suppose I should sleep.”

He doesn’t sound pleased by this development, but neither does he push Kakashi away when he walks Sasuke, quite insistently, to where Sakura and Naruto are sleeping.

This goes on for several days and nights.

“You’re really here tonight as well, Kakashi?”

“If you blow out the lantern again, I’ll be mad… Kakashi no—”

“You stupid kelpie, are you actually worried about me?”

He snorts and tosses his head.

Sasuke smiles thinly. “I think I get the idea, Kakashi. You can go now.”

Kakashi does not move.

“Stupid kelpie,” the boy mutters.

He says it in the same tone that he uses to call Naruto an idiot, so the stupid kelpie is not offended. He is beginning to understand the night-sky boy, Naruto’s opposite in many ways, uninviting and reclusive. His joy, his help, is not the bright and burning life of the sun but the subtle twinkling guidance of the stars, constant enough to steer by.

Again, Sasuke works late into the night. Again, Kakashi extinguishes the lantern when Sasuke get too tired, the boy having long given up on trying to prevent him from doing this. He plods with the boy back to the children’s sleeping quarters.

“You probably think it’s stupid, don’t you?”

Kakashi blinks slowly.

The moon is full tonight. Sasuke gazes up at it with longing. “My family used to own lands,” he says. Kakashi stills, ready to listen. Sasuke’s voice is a faint croak. “I thought it was fair. We’d take a share of the crop, but in return, we’d protect them. Then some of the villages… died. I… I thought it was a famine, just an accident… my parents, my family, were attacked and killed and I blamed the people…”

He looks down at his feet and is silent until Kakashi nudges him again, huffing softly on his neck.

“I didn’t realise… there _was_ a famine. But _we_ caused it.” Sasuke’s fists clench. “They didn’t have the food to spare. They were starving, and if they let us take the food, they would die anyway. So they tried to fight us for it.” His lips curl in a sneer. “And now the fields are empty because there’s no one to work them. It was pure, bloody-minded arrogance. Pointless. But so many people are dead because of it. That’s why… I can’t fix the whole system. But I can at least give people the tools to argue better about what they deserve to keep.”

Kakashi whinnies quietly.

Sasuke gives a faint smile. “Naruto is the one who wants to change everything. Maybe he will. He’s changed a lot already.” He sighs and puts his arm around Kakashi’s neck. “I know you won’t stop worrying but… at least let me do this, alright?”

Snorting and tossing his head, the horse gave Sasuke a flat look.

“I’ll hold you to that,” he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. “Goodnight, Kakashi.”

He goes to bed, and the horse remains awake, considering. He understands why Sakura said some things cannot be fixed. If Sasuke wasn’t like this, he would not be Sasuke.

But Kakashi wonders, as well, about Sakura and Naruto—Sakura who always talks about the village where she was apprenticed in the past tense; Naruto, who Sasuke told him grew up lonely, who Sasuke _knew_ grew up lonely. Sasuke said there was no one left to plough the fields, and it is true that three children alone cannot do much of anything with an empty field.

The nights keep growing longer and colder but Kakashi doesn’t feel the cold. Sleep is not necessary for him, he does not feel it nor need it. When he closes his eyes and sinks down in to darkness, he experiences… to call it tranquillity would be to call the stillness restful, and it is not. It is the fury of the abandoned, lonely water, the black pool which did not give life, only drowning, drowning—

And yet, Kakashi will open his eyes, and his breath will mist the air, and there will be work and flowers and the laughter of children, and the black pool will no longer feel so deep.

Three children cannot plough the fields in the lands they once called home, but they can make small miracles.

So Kakashi keeps Sasuke company on his night time vigils and makes the boy get enough sleep so he can stay useful. He believes the small acts of kindness and knowledge that Sasuke is planting now will one day sprout, like the wheat the men harvest whilst they sing, even if Sasuke doesn’t believe in himself.

*

**Winter**

The ground hardens with frost, day by day. The harvest is in, the animals are being slaughtered or put in to shelter, and the air is heavy with the threat of snow.

“Hey, hey, Sasuke, didn’t you say there were birds that fly south for the winter?” Naruto whines. “Why can’t we do that again?”

“Because we lack wings?” Sasuke sighs. His nose and cheeks have turned bright pink in the cold air, but Kakashi is pleased to see that his pallor is already looking healthier than a mere few weeks ago. “Don’t forget, there’s still something we have to do here.”

Naruto blinks at him blankly.

Sakura slaps the back of his head. “You idiot! Don’t tell me you forgot?!”

“Oh!” He stand straighter and nods. “Yeah, I remember.”

“You remember _now,_ ” Sakura says mulishly.

Naruto pouts and, for some reason, pats Kakashi’s neck. “Yeah. Just a week to go. Everyone promised!”

Kakashi is incredibly confused, but they seem to like it that way.

“Hehe… it’ll be a nice surprise.” Naruto grins. “Look forward to it! One week!”

“Yeah.” Sakura smiled as well, but hers looks a little sad. “It’ll be spring before you know it, too.”

Time passes in the same chilled silence. Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke take Kakashi to a larger town up the river which they haven’t visited before. Kakashi plods through the town, attracting suspicious glances until they enter the town square. There, he blinks at seeing familiar faces, and even the children he played with in the summer with Naruto. They wave and cheer, pulling on parents’ sleeves to point at him. To his surprise, he receives some cautious smiles from the adults as well, or nods of acknowledgment.

“You did good, Kakashi,” Naruto says softly.

No one is riding today, not even Sasuke. All three of them walk beside him, keeping a steady pace as a unit of four.

“You’re _doing_ great,” Sasuke adds. “Just keep going and stay calm.”

Sakura nods. “They all came out for you. Remember that.”

Kakashi is more curious than ever, but all he can hear when he pricks his ears is indiscriminate chatter, nothing useful.

“HEAR YE! HEAR YE!” At the centre of the square on a wooden platform, there is a man wearing a bright red coat. He begins to ring a clamorous bell, quieting the whole square in no time. “HEAR YE!” he shouts again, and this time his voice rings out clearly in the silence. “The lord has received the people’s petitions and heard your demands!”

Sasukes hand clenches in Kakashi’s mane, rigid with tension.

“I come to deliver the lord’s answer!” The man clears his throat and opens a roll of paper. “BY THE DECREE of the lord of these lands, the dam that was built in the spring of last on a tributary the River Kono shall hereby be removed before the passing of one month…!”

The man continues speaking, but the rest of his words are drowned out in cheers so loud that Kakashi flinches and flattens his ears.

The loudest cheers of all come from right next to him. “YEAH KAKASHI! YOU DID IT!”

“Naruto, quiet down!” Sasuke tries to tell him although it comes off as more than a little hypocritical when he has to shout to be heard.

“Your river is going to flow again!” Sakura yells, waving her arms gleefully.

Kakashi tosses his head and nudges her.

“Because you helped everyone,” she explains. She throws her arms around his neck and squeezes tightly. “Isn’t it amazing, Kakashi! You get to go home!”

Home?

Where is home?

*

**Spring**

When they return to the wood, it takes Kakashi a moment to recognise it. There is a subtle shift in the air, birdsong brighter and louder than he remembers, sweet trilling music echoing around them as they walk through the wood.

He expects it to darken as they walk but it does not. He pricks his ears and sniffs, searching for some clue. Perhaps he is wrong? It does not feel like the same place that he left, almost a year ago, under the bridle and saddle. He is free of both now, the three children he has come to know so well bumping shoulders with him as they walk. They are subdued and silent, even Naruto, which puts Kakashi ill at ease. Why did they come here?

It is only when they enter a particularly shaded bit of the forest that he realises where they are: the pool. _His_ pool, but it looks so different.

There is no oppressive silence now, birds tweeting to each other in the trees, whilst squirrels forage and chitter amongst the bushes. The water which used to be deathly still runs in a steady trickle through the old river bed—just a glimpse of what it used to be, but soon it will run faster and faster, and the pool will not be a pool at all but just another bend in the river, as it used to be. Kakashi remembers the rushing stream, sunlight playing through the water, fishes and reeds gliding through the current, feet kicking in the water as children scream with delight, petals softly floating on the surface, being carried downstream…

These, all things Kakashi used to know as he knew himself, but he forgot them. The water became so still and lifeless and he felt abandoned, and he _forgot._ He only wanted to hurt them as he had been hurt.

The children… the children helped him remember, and then they freed the river. He can go now as he used to, run through the forests and the plains and hills, ever flowing and shifting.

“Well, this is it,” Sakura says. She takes something out of her pouch, a flash of silver. “Here you go, Kakashi.”

He blinks, recognising the necklace dangling from her fingers. The kelpie necklace… it’s the symbol of his river, of his very self.

He doesn’t move.

Sasuke makes an impatient gesture. “Take it! Then you can go back into the river. If you stay out more than a year, you won’t be able to go back. We’re already cutting it fine…”

“I’d love it if you could stay and hang out with us some more!” Naruto grins, even as his eyes water. “But it’s time for all of us to go. You can go home, and we have to go help some place else… Hey, don’t worry, though, we’ll come back to visit in a few years!”

Of course. The children are leaving—Sasuke said as much. Presumably, they’re going to help there, as well. Naruto will make new friends, Sakura will heal more cuts and bruises, Sasuke will work himself near to death in the middle of the night…

He takes the necklace from Sakura gently, careful with his sharp teeth. It is like having water poured over him. Instantly, he feels at home, and he can change shape again.

Kakashi turns into the figure of the man he borrowed—stole—the one with silver hair that Naruto seemed so surprised by, although this time it’s not obscured by river reeds.

“You will remember us though, right, Kakashi?” Naruto bites his lip. “We had fun.”

Taking the necklace in his fingers instead, Kakashi nods. He’s not sure if he trusts this voice yet, unfamiliar as it is.

The pool was lonely, but now flowers bloom in the once-fallow mud. Large yellow petals, delicate pink, and elegantly shaped deep blue. This is where Kakashi was born, brought to life again as it should always have been.

But he’s not sure if it’s home.

He tosses the necklace into the water. Time to see if the voice on this body still works. “So, where are we going?”

They stare at him. Kakashi scratches the back of his head as the silence grows awkward.

“But—but—if you don’t—” Sasuke stumbles over his words in a way that’s unlike his usual poised self.

“It won’t be your river any more,” Sakura says. “Another kelpie will be born from it. You can never come home.”

“Eh, I guess,” Kakashi replies. There is a lump in his throat which he doesn’t know how to speak around, or maybe it’s more that he doesn’t know how to voice all of it—any of it—better than seeing their flowers growing. They are a part of him now, and he doesn’t know if he could be apart from them if he tried. “But someone has to keep an eye out for all of you.” He narrows his eyes at Sasuke in particular. “And make sure you all get to bed on time.”

Sasuke and Sakura blink at him. But Naruto, practically vibrating with excitement, laughs aloud and throws himself at Kakashi’s middle, wrapping his arms around him. “You’re staying!”

He sounds so surprised. Naruto, who can make friends anywhere he goes, but always has to leave them behind. Kakashi rests a hand on the top of his head. “Well, if you’ll have me along. But I’m going to look very stupid if I have to dive into the pool for that necklace.”

“Don’t be stupid!” Sakura shakes her head, the pink hair flailing around her. “Of course—of course you can stay. We just didn’t think…”

She always takes such good care of others, but she’s not as used to taking good care of herself.

Sasuke is still staring at Kakashi. He blinks tears out of his eyes when Sakura turns back to look at him for reassurance, doing his best to stand straight and regal, projecting confidence. “Right. It’s your own life, you can do what you want. We need… we won’t turn down help. But you have to keep up with us; we won’t slow down for you.”

“Sasuke!” Naruto blurts, scandalisied. “It’s _Kakashi,_ can’t you just be nice for three whole seconds—”

“I’m just saying, he has to make the choice in full knowledge—”

“This is supposed to be a nice moment, can’t you two just—”

The sombre mood is ruined as the three children descend into bickering. Despite their brilliance, individually and together, they _need_ someone, and Kakashi hopes it can be him if he tries hard enough.

“Maaa, you guys are giving me a headache already!” He tries to smile, remembers he still has sharp teeth, and rolls the neck of his black clothes up over his face instead. It stretches just as he wishes—being away from a river doesn’t mean he stops being a kelpie, a shapeshifter—covering the lower half of his face. There, much better. “Don’t we have somewhere to be going?”

“Oh!” Naruto abruptly stops halfway through delivering a scathing rebuttal to Sasuke. “Kakashi! Could you turn into a horse again and carry all of us? It will be faster.”

He pretends to think about it. “Hmm… No.”

“Kakashi, you’re no fun!”

“Naruto, he has to get used to two legs again. Anyway, it’s not like we’re in a hurry.”

“It wouldn’t be very comfortable, anyway, without a saddle.”

“But you guuuuuys…!”

Yes, this is exactly where Kakashi is meant to be.

**Author's Note:**

> All kinds of comments loved and appreciated; concrit, I didn't like x, this reminded me of y, z was very cool--any thoughts are welcome and valuable.


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